


Poisson

by peoriapeoria



Series: Fitter of the Species [22]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Incredible Hulk (Comics)
Genre: Daily Bugle, Ensemble Cast, F/M, Implied/Referenced Mind Control, Lost Love, Marriage, Obsession, Photography, Super Soldier Serum, Young Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-27 00:13:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 5,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9937439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peoriapeoria/pseuds/peoriapeoria
Summary: "Based off the War Machine system." Betty explained further as the other woman called for Tony. "General Ross has reverse engineered and scaled up the War Machine system. Power was a constraint, that appears to have been surmounted recently. It's just a matter of time before he tries for you, Bruce."Perhaps lovers star-crossed would better live with another more aligned.





	1. Chapter 1

Betty looked up at the tower, now too close to see the uppermost floors, the jut casting a shadow on floors below. She pushed her shoulders back and took a deep breath. She headed for the revolving door on the exhale.

"Welcome to Stark Industries." The male receptionist spoke from behind the foyer desk. "Ms--" 

"Dr. Elizabeth Ross." She was not just waved on, the receptionist/security guard checked a list for her name, naturally not finding it. He was starting to speak and stopped, seemingly listening as instructions came through. She expected he was wearing an earbud.

"Please use the farther, private elevator. Lift either hand palm facing out."

Betty did as instructed and the elevator opened for her. Its doors closed after she entered; she felt the subtle thrum of power made motion. The urgency of her message kept her going; the ease of this stage was welcome. She stepped out of the elevator as the doors slid open, taken aback that she was inside an apartment. The view was amazing. There was but one door other than the elevator's so she went to knock.

Bruce was shirtless when he opened the door. He stepped out hurriedly, closing the door behind him fast and quiet. He looked good, fed and not so harried. They weren't his pants.

"It's my dad." She tried to focus, it was hard with so much Bruce on display. "Mechas, calls them Hulk Busters." She pulled out a lipstick, twisting it to reveal the thumb drive. Bruce directed her to a port. She shared her information, increasing speed as she went, as she realized the constraints Bruce had operated under since the accident no longer applied.

"Doctor Ross." The blonde spoke, having closed the door.

It wasn't that Captain America surprised her, it had been very apparent Bruce had company. The woman however wearing Bruce's clothes, still buttoning the shirt--

"That's based off the Iron Man suit." She activated another heads up display and looked over the schematics, flipping through them at a rapid pace. Betty could tell she was taking in information at a phenomenal rate, coming back to compare and contrast images.

"Based off the War Machine system." Betty explained further as the other woman called for Tony. "General Ross has reverse engineered and scaled up the War Machine system. Power was a constraint, that appears to have been surmounted recently. It's just a matter of time before he tries for you, Bruce."

"That's cool." Tony stepped off the elevator. "Total violation of my intellectual property, but cool. Legal has always wanted to sue the U.S. government." He started rifling through the files. "JARVIS, figure out which patents have been violated, send the list to Legal."

"Yes, Sir."

Tony turned to her. "Betsy, how are you?"

"Never, ever, Pitch, call me that."

"You know each other?" Bruce looked at them lost.

"Small world, defense. Generals and their wives, and their children, socialize with the top contractors and politicians. All the smart children head below stairs." Betty explained.

"That's to say Betty adored Anna, the better half of the mortal Jarvis."

She nodded. The Jarvises had been a joy in a difficult childhood. Her father would have been horrified had he been paying attention.

"Bruce, we're on this. Thunderbolt isn't winning this battle." Tony looked Bruce in the eyes or would have if Bruce wasn't staring at the floor.

She thought Tony was going to chuck Bruce under the chin. He looked up. His smile, it was stronger now. Heartbreaker.

"Doctor Ross, you'll need to stay away from your father."

It wasn't anything she'd expected to hear from Captain America. Betty looked at Bruce. "I know." She'd been moving from one posting to another, one college to another her whole life. Everything of value was on her, in storage or her father still had. She'd policed her refrigerator of perishables before leaving, just as a force of habit.

"Let's get you signed off on a non-disclosure agreement." Tony was looking at her brightly. "Then I can show you around. Dr. Foster calls this one of her home labs."

She didn't look back, but she could hear the rustle of clothes against clothes even over Tony talking. It was good Bruce wasn't alone.


	2. Chapter 2

"Bruce." Steve slipped in front of him, fingers brushing his sides firmly enough not to tickle. "What are you feeling?"

"There is only one way to deal with this when it comes." He looked up, gazed into her face. He reached up, not quite touching. "Go quietly." He poked her in the bicep. "Look at that thing. That's not a threat to me, not to the Hulk. Nothing is a threat to the Hulk that makes him angry. That's a disaster with a human operator; a very expensive bulldozer."

Steve looked at the mecha, spun the display and encouraged it to move. "That's not an acceptable solution."

"No, not really. But it's still what there is, when the general makes the move."

"JARVIS, assemble the team in half an hour, order food. Tell them it's a meeting." Steve kissed Bruce. "I'll scrub your back." She headed back to his bedroom, unbuttoning his shirt as she went.

Bruce looked down and realized which pants he'd pulled on. Not his. Betty. She'd have noticed. He followed Steve and stripped. He got into the shower, the powerful spray just what he needed. Steve lathered him back and front, shampooed his hair.

"Steve-"

"Later."

Steve wasn't putting him off to ignore him. She was soaking him in, he could feel her active awareness of him. It was heady, more than sexual. He tried to let himself into the moment, not anticipate nor ruminate. It was an imperfect but worthwhile attempt.


	3. Chapter 3

"She'll need to go back." Natasha explained. She was looking at Steve with an expression... Really, Natasha only had expressions with people she liked and respected. Exasperation and disapproval were just obverse sides.

The briefing otherwise went as expected. Barton and Coulson were unsurprised, naturally, since it was nothing SHIELD hadn't considered. Sam he thought was looking at it like a plane turned into a tank. Barnes however...

...He iced over. Barnes conferred with Barton, but it was stripped down, the least evocative Russian he'd ever heard. Steve was expending her utmost not to react, to stay on the mission. Until Natasha contradicted her about Betty. 

"Running draws attention," continued Natasha.

Steve stood up, pushing out her chest. Always inspiring; Bruce could see Tony straining against saying anything. Natasha held her ground and Steve pulled back.

"I defer to your expertise."

"Thank you." Natasha tilted her head, looking at Barnes.

The team went into detail mode, planning and counter-planning. In the short-term, he was staying in the Tower. Steve, would still leave the building but with a buddy, seen or unseen. Tony mostly supplied devil's advocacy as he noticed flaws. The Hulk Busters might be bastards but they were still best understood by Iron Man. Barnes, Sam, Clint and Coulson worked as a team, running scenarios on how to asymmetrically combat the Hulk Busters and how to secure civilians. He had nothing to add.


	4. Chapter 4

Betty clenched and released, the thrust and slide winding her up into ecstasy. Her climax rolled through her, thrummed the tight wires of her being, rung her like a bell. She arched, fought to stay on her forearms. The spurt of denouement came and with it weight along her back.

"Want to talk about it?" Leonard had pulled her over and against him, head onto his chest.

"Not really. I saw Bruce." She rolled and scooted up a bit in bed.

"How was he?"

"He looked good." He hadn't looked hunted before she shared her news. He was eating better from what she'd seen.

"Did you meet Captain America?"

She looked at Leonard, noting the crinkle at the corner of his eye. "Yeah." That she'd surprised them into each others clothes was private. She'd served herself that dose of truth by appearing out of the blue.

"And?"

"It didn't look like she needed a shovel talk."

Leonard chuckled and kissed her. "That's part of what I love about you." He shifted them into an open embrace. "How was that then?"

"Conflicted." They had both moved on, Bruce and herself. She wanted him to have the best of everything, but it was hard to see. "She's impressive."

"You're a standout, Doctor."

"Doctor, good response." There wasn't a competition between Captain America and herself, Bruce wasn't a chit. It was reasonable that he wouldn't have the same fears about hurting a woman that stopped an alien invasion, of being a danger magnet with someone already on the front line. Didn't mean it didn't hurt, that it couldn't be her.


	5. Chapter 5

Janet Van Dyne exited the elevator on the Avengers' common floor. She stepped around the couch, finding just the men she was looking for playing a video game. It looked cute, there was a burst of gold coins. She sat, waiting for a cut scene. She learned it was LEGO, but wasn't quite sure why Princess Leia, Indiana Jones and C3PO were their avatars.

"Hi, Jan."

Trust Barnes to speak first, still facing the action onscreen. "Which one are you playing?"

"Leia." The character on the screen caused a flourish of glory. "She's the only one in the movies that can shoot."

Jan smiled. "You guys good talking and playing?"

"No different than a mission," Sam replied. Indy swung up onto a ledge using his whip.

"It's time for the next round of advertising."

"Aw, Jan. Do we have to?" Clint shouldn't be able to pull off that sort of dejected whiney voice.

"Leave me out of that, Barton. Jan, you got it." Sam shoulder-checked Clint, then Barnes.

"Sit on my other side next time, Barnes."

Leia hopped about and caused a shower of bricks.

"Why us?" Barnes asked. "Can't be that short on men in NYC."

"You'd be surprised." Natasha entered with a plate of smothered nachos. "Consider it public service." She kicked Clint, gently. Sort of. "Go take food to Phil."

He got up and Natasha took his controller smoothly, setting the nachos before her.


	6. Chapter 6

Betty let herself into Leonard's house. As she'd expected the crockpot was perfuming the air with the savory scent of supper. She went further into the house to find him. She found him talking on the phone.

It didn't take long to realize he was talking to her father. His expression really said it all; it was hard to interject a word much less a thought until it was required by the general. Leonard however, and this was the thing that she really loved about him, when it came to speaking to her father, could always twist out of the words her father tried to plant on him. Score one for a psychiatrist.

“Thank you for the advice, General. I must not keep supper and Betty waiting.”

“What was he trying to convince you of?” Betty stepped closer, rising up for a kiss.

“The objective I agree with, but his timing is off.”

“Ah, ordering you to convince me to marry you.”

"He again tries to convince the already committed."

"While I'm the one not ready to be institutionalized. Dinner smells delicious." She laughed as Leonard offered her an elbow and led them back into the kitchen. They gathered together their supper and sat at the table romantically candlelit.


	7. Chapter 7

_1989_

Betty quickly secured her hair, put on her goggles and donned gloves on entering the lab. Bruce was already hovering over their experiment. This was the second trial out of four. "Hello, handsome."

He smiled shyly. He'd come a long way, no longer brushing off compliments. They conferred over their research, discussed possible impacts on the experiment. She gathered slides and coverslips, a pipette and got to work sampling specimens.

"Want to take a look?" She had the better drawing hand, not that Bruce's work wasn't satisfactory. It meant Betty took more of the microscopy.

"Sure." Bruce slipped in. He looked away and at her sketches, returning to the microscope.

Later they walked to their apartment. Nominally they didn't share a room, Bruce's 'bed' was in the living room; it was a fiction the landlord was comfortable with, renting a one bedroom to two people of the opposite sex. She got out cold cuts and put bread into the toaster, while Bruce washed lettuce and carrots. Betty went to shed her lab clothes, coming back out in sweats to the finished sandwiches. Bruce quickly did the same and they sat on the ersatz couch to eat.


	8. Chapter 8

Clint stood in the elevator with six cans of microbrew. He'd learned his lesson, super-soldiers processed mere alcohol too fast for regular humans to keep up. Three beers he could handle. Natasha and Sam were off infiltrating and triaging, crossing off Daeshe and running humanitarian supplies. Steve had her hands full as Captain America and Banner's girlfriend. He had this.

The door opened. That Barnes was standing there didn't surprise him. That he looked casual sorta did.

"Follow me."

Clint had exited a lot of windows over his career. Never at 83 stories (those were through); the brick wall was odd. "You've made Manhattan into an alley view."

Barnes smiled, a vestige of the one well known from school textbooks. Stuck out his left hand. "Flat tops were fun, after." He made a zippo motion with his metal thumb as he accepted the beer with his right.

It's nothing like sitting on a fire escape and everything like it. The temperature is controlled, no fetid smell, they have chairs. Nothing.

"Why keep weaponizing men?"

Clint turned; it was a good question. Barnes asking it... "Makes them feel big." Loki had been inside his head, had gloated; there was enough of him left not to take the headshot because of ego, Loki's more than his own.

"Thing about strings, they pull both ways."

Clint drank to that.


	9. Chapter 9

1989

"Dad." Betty was dressed. Her father was looking around her apartment like it was inspection. Bruce was still in their room, dressed by now. She couldn't be too obvious getting her father out of the small apartment. He'd dig in.

"You're hiding something." He proclaimed

He had reflexes and was through the bedroom door before she could jump. No Bruce.

"I see that your bed's made."

Betty was tamping down her surprise. That was not the condition they'd left the bed in.

He opened the closet door. He didn't open the dresser drawers; he'd stopped doing that when she kept moving her panties and bras for a month straight. He started to head out of her room, then dove at her bed looking under it. All he found were suitcases.

"I pass?"

"You smell like sex. He knows how to run, how's he fight?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Bruce wasn't tall, but neither was he small. She hoped he wasn't hanging onto the side of the building. Her father accepted it was time to retreat. She showed him out, made a point of going to the window in the living room and seeing him drive away. She double checked the door then went into the bedroom.

"Bruce?"

The closet door opened. He'd hid behind her largest suitcase in the space the hard sides had been in. Betty didn't have a lot of luggage. She hadn't seen Bruce because her father made a good wall not just by his personality.

"I've got experience."

Betty deflated. Bruce was folded in on himself. "Waffles?"

He tipped his head up, smiled. This man, who could have ever hurt this man? She reached out for his hand, walked slowly into the kitchen leading him along.


	10. Chapter 10

A CCTV window opened, clearly just outside the tower. A woman was drifting back and forth. Ah, it had been sped up. "JARVIS."

"She's in the private elevator. I'm running it three quarter time."

Steve signaled for JARVIS to run the video faster, and add a counter. She opened another window to view the first sign of the woman. She looked like she was bracing herself to action. "Why let her enter the elevator?"

"Her considerations seem internal, not external."

"So, not a terrorist, in your professional opinion." Steve marveled at the present-future. "Let's see what she has to say."

The ding was melodramatic.

"Excuse me," Steve said to the woman as she stepped out of the elevator onto the Avengers' floor.

"I'm here to visit Bruce, my cousin."

"Doctor Banner is in the lab," JARVIS intoned.

Steve thought she was in her thirties, certainly younger than Bruce but not as young as Darcy. "I'm Steve."

"I know. I meant, I recognize you. Steve, didn't expect that. I'm Jennifer." Her brightness was a little brittle, like it had been cribbed from someone surer.

Maybe she was older than she looked. "Nice to meet you. Um, Bruce didn't mention he had living family."

"He's not good at keeping in touch, the running. I'm a lawyer."

"Oh? That's a lot of schooling, both of you." Steve respected Jennifer for not even trying to salvage that, just smiling weakly.

Bruce stepped out of the elevator. "Jennifer, what a surprise." He embraced her. "You've met Steve."

"I'd have been less of a surprise if you'd visited since the Battle of New York." That statement was solid, assured.

"For." Steve continued as they looked over at the interjection. "There was a Battle of New York during the Revolutionary War. We fought the Chitauri for New York."

Jennifer beamed. "That makes sense. Bruce, want to introduce us?"

"I'm sorry, things have been eventful what with SHIELD crashing down and everything. Steve, this is my adorable cousin, Jennifer Walters, who is a lawyer in upstate New York. Jennifer, Steve Rogers in addition to being Captain America is an artist."

"Really? What media?" There was the curiosity Bruce held in great measure.

"Mostly pencils. I've been branching out, trying more color work."

"Bruce, what's wrong? I can tell something is, you're trying to figure out how to get me out of here." Her kinship with Bruce was strong.

"I'm wondering what made you come to NYC."

"I've not seen you in years." She nodded and smiled, looked to Steve.

"Look, the U.S. Army still wants me-"

"Not enough to take you from a talk show set." That was umbrage.

"That was before."

"Before I made a mess of D.C." Steve smiled lopsidedly.

"You just cleaned up best you could." Earnest. Jennifer exhaled. "So, seeing the sights is out, but really it was you, both of you, that I wanted to see."

The elevator doors parted and Phil exited, halting on seeing Jennifer. He was wearing jeans and a cardigan over a mock neck tee.

"This is Bruce's cousin," said Steve.

"Jennifer." She extended her hand.

"I'm Phil." He shook. "Nice to meet you." He continued back to the kitchen.

"Who is he?"

"Tamer of paperwork." Steve answered. "Actually, we can see a lot of the sights right through the window."

Jennifer headed to the window, letting out a gasp that turned out to be for the Chrysler building.

"The tour comes with a meal, and the Avengers."


	11. Chapter 11

Betty sat on her couch. Leonard was at a conference and her apartment was a shorter commute. She'd not really thought about how much she was living at Leonard's house. She ate another forkful of pasta omelet with condiments and frozen vegetables. There had been no reason to go grocery shopping for her place. There were still eggs, and a few things in the freezer. She'd cleaned out the last of the jars into her supper.

She'd moved on. She'd starting dating Leonard while Bruce was still on the run. She'd seen clips here and there, photos in the checkout line, but really only seeing Steve and Bruce in person made them real. Bruce had also moved on.

They weren't moving together. That stream wasn't going meet again. Betty finished her dinner, took her plate into the kitchen and washed up.

She wasn't sad, that wasn't why she was crying. It was relief, that she'd figured out why accepting Leonard's proposals hadn't felt right. Betty knew she had the confirmation she'd been waiting for. Bruce would be okay, and so would she. Apart.


	12. Chapter 12

Steve looked at the display. JARVIS had given the call as the trucks rolled into Manhattan. They were heavy and they were ARMY. They had come out of the Holland Tunnel and spread out in traffic along Canal Street. The news was calling it a training exercise. There weren't nearly enough soldiers if they were all personnel transport. There wouldn't be many in Manhattan who would know that.

They suited up in turn. Not Tony. He'd poured over Betty's files, was prepared to launch exploits together with JARVIS. There wasn't much they could do until Ross tipped his hand. Clint and Bucky headed out with override buttons and their standard weapons to take up position.

It was almost a relief when the Hulk Busters started stepping down from the convoy. "Their pilots are inexperienced." Steve hardly needed Tony's opinion on that, as they swayed like foals. They were big, knees above car tops, bodies like small tanks, arms ending in battering rams.

Steve was looking on at what should have been a movie, should have been a puppet show or stop motion animation. They were nothing like the Iron Man suit or War Machine. That they walked upright was more an affront, an attempt at intimidation; they'd be of little use rescuing someone, of searching a building. And these weapons were in NYC, for no other reason than to capture a man who'd had the misfortune to be caught up in yet another super-soldier project.

Steve had been a willing volunteer. Naive, perhaps, if that could describe anyone from Brooklyn, any orphan. Schmidt's unmasking had been cautionary, and maybe that's why too many questions about just what Zola did to Bucky the first time went unconsidered. Maybe Bucky felt the same way about his best friend turning into a woman. It did give a certain twist to Doctor Erskine's reminder to stay a good man, not lose himself in becoming a perfect soldier.

Steve watched as the Hulk Busters made a mockery of Roosevelt's 'big stick' comment, walking and likely splitting pavement. Clint checked in, they'd taken up position on the Brooklyn Bridge.

It was tense. Steve itched to stop the utter disregard, fighting the urge to instigate something.

"I do apologize. Doctor Banner has left the tower." JARVIS put up feed seemingly extrapolated from ATM cameras.

Steve looked between the various views. The soldiers had to be looking right at Bruce.


	13. Chapter 13

"Shit." Barnes saw Bruce through his scope as he kept watch on the Hulk Busters. He opened channel to Barton. "Watch for Stars."

The lack of question confirmed that Hawkeye had seen their scientist. Barnes considered just how quickly Steve could run from the tower. No need to jump from a plane or take out any Nazis; he hardly had time to prepare.

It was a fucking comedy of errors. The Hulk Busters didn't see Banner, or the livid Captain America. They started shooting because of Jennifer. Or maybe that was coincidence; they were like a handgun within reach of a toddler, a countdown to the inevitable.

Hulk. Again, inevitable. Cars were stepped on. Barnes popped two tires on a moving Mercedes to spin it into position as an impact cushion for other cars. One was pulled away from the pileup, people spilling out of all four doors after it impacted a mailbox. His attention shrank to the civilians that hadn't considered just how bad their day could get.

"Where are they?" Two of the Hulk Busters had come close enough for him to puncture their hydraulics, their pilots jumping out. Traffic was no longer an issue, people had taken cover. Barnes couldn't see Hulk.

"She took part of a building."

Steve did that. He looked for the Hulk Buster she'd punched.

"Jennifer took part of a building."

Barnes prayed. He hadn't grabbed any tranq rounds.


	14. Chapter 14

Steve carried Jennifer while Bruce staunched her wounds, mainly with his hands. The chunk of masonry hadn't struck her directly, there had been a hydrant to take most of the impact. Steve kicked doors not having a free hand to open them. Steve laid her on a desk, started tearing the office apart for supplies. She'd lost a lot of blood.

Steve brought sweaters, M&Ms, pads and jerky sticks to Bruce. Steve tied tourniquets and then started shoving sugar and protein into Bruce's mouth. Hulk had ceased raging in mid-smash, Steve lashing out with the edge of the shield at the nearest Hulk Buster before scooping up Jennifer, while Bruce stumbled along.

Steve took in the office while listening to Jennifer breathe. Red Cross. Blood. "Bruce."

"Nothing here will be tested. Most of it won't even be typed."

"I'm O negative." Jennifer was ashen, like Steve hadn't seen since the war.

Bruce ran. Came back. It was a blur, the stick of the needle, the whir of an improvised centrifuge. The press of another plunger. Jennifer's color improved, her breathing became stronger, less shallow. And then she started turning green, growing.

Steve watched Bruce pat himself down for open wounds, further smearing Jennifer's blood over his skin. Jennifer started rearranging sweaters, pulling one on and tying another around her waist.

"I'm thirsty."

Steve found the juice boxes and brought an armload of them over. It was a good idea; Steve punched one and handed it to Jennifer, sipped from a second one, and punched another making Bruce drink.

"Whose blood is this?" Jennifer looked at her hands, smeared from the sweater and then at the rest of her.

Steve nodded, it being a reasonable question, considering how they were all covered. "Bruce, find a bathroom." Steve hoped this wouldn't be a building with just the Dyson dryers. Steve took a look under the sweaters, poked about. "Yours. You've healed pretty well."

"That's not possible. This is a lot of blood. I'd be in shock."

Steve considered that Jennifer might be in shock. "Bruce had to give you a transfusion; of my blood."

"My hands are green." She'd rubbed patches clean.

Okay, so not just the lights or returning color blindness. Steve looked at the sweater that had started out cream. It was red. "Yes, they are."

"Go check on Bruce. I'll lie down."

Steve first brought her cookies and then went after Bruce.

Bruce had scrubbed off the worst, had gotten mostly clean. Nothing stuck to the Hulk pants. Steve soaped and rinsed a few spots Bruce couldn't see in the mirror. Fortunately the bathroom had both a hand dryer and paper towels, so Steve dried Bruce's face and chest, wiped up the bloody footprints. "Have a cookie." Steve took Bruce back to Jennifer.

The green wasn't as noticeable. She was taller. Steve found a fleece blanket and draped it over Bruce's shoulders. "Jennifer, can we get you cleaned up?" She nodded and Steve helped her walk to the women's room. This was more cursory, since the sweaters were bloody though drying; face and hands clean was enough.

Steve led them outside, through the broken doors. Canal near the Brooklyn Bridge was a mess, as were the remains of their earlier confrontation. Most of the Hulk Busters were aimless in between. Most wasn't all. It only took one to start a fight back up.

Technically, two. The Hulk Buster fired and Hulk took over from Bruce. And then Jennifer kicked the Hulk Buster. Into a small park. Without damaging any trees. The teddy bear wasn't so fortunate.

A helicopter landed and took back off, leaving a Ranger. A very familiar face looked out below the beret. Coulson started ordering the still standing Hulk Busters to push the smashed cars and ruined Hulk Busters to one side. 

Steve looked at Jennifer and Hulk. They should return to the tower, but Hulk was a little heavy for the roads. Steve looked longingly at one of the convoy trucks, never mind that it'd be a poor idea and Hulk would never go for it. Hulk was shrinking; not just wishful thinking. 

"Captain?" One of the firewomen walked near. "May we give you lift? The three of you?"

Steve smiled. That was the best offer ever. Bruce and Jennifer were bundled inside the compartment while Steve and a few of the fire fighters rode hanging on, waving as they made their tiniest parade way.


	15. Chapter 15

"There's an Apocalypse Now LT in Tribeca Park." Clint's voice came in over the earpiece.

Coulson walked that way while directing the ambulatory Hulk Busters back onto their transports. The injured pilots were being treated by NYC first responders.

"Why a LT?" The Hulk Busters had no rank insignia, the only reasonable part of this fuck-up.

"Takes an officer to keep fucking up a shit-show. Sir." Barnes added.

"Noted." Barton was right, once Coulson got to the unconscious operator. Bronze really showed gouges, ruining the sculpture's simulation of trash bags. The major might not walk again, it was too soon to know. He provided a sitrep back to the tower. He watched the twin rappels down the pylons of the bridge, a smaller figure retreating above the stilled traffic.


	16. Chapter 16

"I want this She-hulk front page, above the fold!" Jonah bellowed.

Peter winced internally. Jonah was hardly PC. Front page was front page. Green foot and the kicked mecha with NYC in between.

"Put one of this sniper inside with the rest of the copy."

"Nomad."

"What was that, Parker?"

"A picture of Nomad. I've been working background." He hadn't. They saw each other around, Avenger and Spiderman.

"Damn bunch of costumed freaks. Use the one with Hawkguy behind Nomad."

It was good composition, the line of man and rifle contrasted with arc of bow and crouched archer. He still needed to get webbing off his lens.


	17. Chapter 17

Betty swallowed her mouthful of Chinese takeout. "Yes."

Leonard looked at her confused, then hopeful.

"Yes, I will marry you."

He smiled, picked up his wine glass.

They clinked their glasses together.

"To the future." Leonard sipped.

Betty smiled at her future husband and sipped.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my beta, majoline.


End file.
